July 5 - A Ragtime Piano Show in Portland

Mark Nuismer - founder of Portland Ragtime Society
Picture from The Oregonian in article on the July
2, 2008 get together.

Every first Sunday of the month the Portland Ragtime Society puts on a "show" where members play ragtime pieces for the public at the "It's a Beautiful Pizza" place on 3342 SE Belmont, Portland from 2 to 6 PM. And it's open mic as well. There is a Behr Brothers upright from the 1890's and it's a little rickety but it can play a good tune. Members of PRS may bring their own musical instruments as well. Doesn't matter as long as it's ragtime.

There are about 130 members in Portland Ragtime Society. Last year on the 4th of July the pizza place was packed. They even ran out of chairs. With warm and dry weather during the month of July you can expect more people flocking to the pizza place just to hear the intoxicating tunes of ragtime. Who couldn't resist to take a spell and grab a tune or two?

But alas, I will not be there. I have plans to be up in Seattle with my in-laws and spend a couple of days with them on their new 44-foot long yacht. But I expect to show up in Portland for the ragtime montly get together on August 5, Sunday, and introduce myself to everybody during open mic and give ragtime a whirl on that old rickety piano.

The get together is on the first Sunday of each month from 2 to 6 PM located at the "It's a Beautiful Pizza" place on 3342 SE Belmont, Portland. Click here to get map directions.

Be there or be square. It'll be fun. I promise.

Ragtime Era Clothing

Currently I am in the process of looking and buying ragtime era clothings in the hope that I'll have something to wear when I begin playing piano ragtime for the public. Today I went to a very nice Goodwill store and bought a used pair of black Allen Edmonds shoes for $7 bucks and a "paperboy" cap for $3 bucks. The Allen Edmonds shoes (Sanford) is a style that I think mimic the turn of the century type of shoe wear for the well established people. Saved a pretty buck since a brand new pair of Allen Edmonds shoe it'd cost me about $265. Got mine in very good shape for $7bucks.

I'll have to do some more research on the kind of clothes during the ragtime era (from 1890s to 1920s) in the hope to mimic as closely the clothes worn during those time. It'll be an interesting little research to undertake.




I continue to research some more on clothes worn during the turn of the century (1900s) or ragtime ear.

Next, the right pair of pants, shirts, and suspenders. And maybe a tie. I'll probably find what I need at the nearby Portland store called Ray's Ragtime. It holds a collection of turn of the century clothings. I'll see what I can find over there someday soon.

Meanwhile, keep on raggin'.

The Portland Ragtime Society

Well, I finally found one close to my home in Battle Ground, Washington where there's a monthly ragtime get-together located in Portland. It's the Portland Ragtime Society.

The Portland Ragtime Socieity meets on the first Sunday of every month at It's a Beautiful Pizza Come and play and/or listen and LIVE!! All instruments welcome. We were established in Jan. 2006, with Mark as our founder and president. We have no dues, no newsletter, no website and no other officers YET.

The get together is on the first Sunday of each month from 2 to 6 PM at the It's a Beautiful Pizza place on 3342 SE Belmont, Portland.

I came across this in a last year's Portland review article "Live Music Preview: Portland Ragtimie Society" about the founder, Mark Nuismer, on how he discovered ragtime as a teenager hearing Maple Leaf Rag for the first time. Ragtime, as you will discover, has an intoxicating effect.

Battle Ground Ragtime Update II

Greetings all. My family and I finally left on May 23 and arrived in Vancouver, Washington on May 27 after a long drive from New Mexico to Washington for a new life in that state. My wife and I grew up in Tacoma (which is about two hours drive to the north) and so we are happy to be back in a familiar place. Exactly one week later after May 27 we finally found a house to rent for one year while we remain on a very tight budget in the hope we'll sell our house within a year in New Mexico. Meanwhile, we'll make do with what we have until the movers retrieve our stored belongings and unload our stuff as well as my piano into that house so I can finally get back into playing ragtime once again.

It'll be interesting to see what's out here in Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon since Battle Ground, Washington is about 10 to 15 miles away to the north. Any ragtimers out there nearby? Or ragtime festivals? We'll see.

Battle Ground Ragtime

Hello all. My left hand has improved considerably and I don't think I had any pain in it for 3 or 4 weeks now which is good news. Removing the cushion from my bench allowing me to sit a few inches lower makes a difference. And that my arms are better aligned and parallel with the keyboards. Plus playing in a more relaxed style also helps but certainly not easy if you're playing ragtime.

Next, a word of advice to musicians out there in ragtime land. In the spirit of having a good time whether playing in a public venue or on your website, do not mix politics with ragtime such as dedicating a song to a certain politician. In my opinion, it's simply not in good taste. Not in this political climate when you have basically a 50% chance of offending somebody. Keep politics out of ragtime. Just like in the World Championship of Old-time Piano Playing Contest's rules regardng keeping politics out of the competition when playing a piece with no political connotations. And have everybody truly enjoy what ragtime is all about. Pure fun.

Next news is that I'll be moving to Battle Ground, Washington. Hence, the title
of my page Battle Ground Ragtime. Which isn't a bad name to start up a new festival "Battle Ground Ragtime Festival." What do you think? Sounds catchy, eh? I'll arrive at Battle Ground on May 28, 2009. Any ragtimers within 60 miles of the Portland, Oregon area??

Began working in earnest on "Kitten on the Keys" (see Dick Hyman play that piece in YouTube in the right column of my blog) starting last week. An hour here and hour there. I have the first page down almost pat as I get the rhythm down though not at Hyman's amazing speed...at least not yet. Two more pages to go and have just begun on the second page.

Still trying to get around to video tape myself play "Black and White" by George Botsford and "The Easy Winners" by Scott Joplin. Problem is I have a laptop with an embedded camera and that only natural lighting will ensure smooth a smooth video otherwise it'll tend to be jerky. An odd and frustrating thing for me. But it'll come. As for "The Easy Winners", the goal is to make sound lyrical as possible.

And that's it on the news. Keep on raggin'!

The Easy Winners

Still playing as I fine tune my The Easy Winners ragtime piece where I plan to videotape it soon along with Black and White rag, too. I still have to deal with a bit of nagging pain in my left hand which only requires rest from the piano for a few days or so. In fact, I play a little bit better if I don't play the piano for 3 or 4 days. But then again, it's hard to resist playing on my piano as it sits in my living room.

Meanwhile here's a great piano and violin piece on The Easy Winners. The two musical instruments go wonderfully together. Enjoy the song.

Happy Birthday Dick Hyman

Mr. Hyman was born March 8, 1927 in New York City and today marks his 82nd birthday. Even though today is March 7 I would like to say a pre-happy birthday to Mr. Hyman right now just so that I won't forget.

Dick Hyman is a well knows jazz, ragtime and classical pianist. Wikipedia has more on the history of him. Out of my many favorite piano pieces by Hyman "Kitten on the Keys" (a novelty ragtime piece whihc is a very fun piece to listen!) and "The Finger Breaker" rank at the top for me of which I am practicing those two pieces right now (albeit too slowly). I've also put the two YouTube videos permanently over onto the right side column of my blog site.